BBF Supports Operation Renew Prosthetics For Ukrainian Soldiers

By Bill Endicott
Co-Founder of Operation Renew Prosthetics

Operation Renew Prosthetics (ORP) is a program run by Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics (MCOP) of Silver Spring, Maryland to provide prosthetics for Ukrainian soldier amputees and Brother’s Brother is a partner with ORP. At the moment, ORP cares for soldiers here in the United States and it is trying to raise money for that. But eventually ORP seeks to create a prosthetics center in Ukraine itself and BBF has offered to help with that, too.

How It Started

Bill Endicott and Mike Corcoran, who together started ORP, knew each other from having been to the 1992 Olympics in the sport of whitewater canoeing and kayaking. After he got done with the Olympics, Mike eventually became the CEO of MCOP and Bill, a former Marine Corps Reserve officer, eventually did a stint working in the White House.

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan MCOP had the DoD/Walter Reed contract to provide prosthetics for 1,100 US soldier amputees and therefore had vast experience dealing with complex blast injury cases. MCOP also cared for Estonian and Georgian soldier amputees from the war in Afghanistan at the Walter Reed hospital and helped establish state-of-the art prosthetics centers in those countries.

So, in the spring of 2022, Bill contacted Mike, asked whether Mike could do something similar for Ukrainian soldiers, Mike immediately said yes, and ORP was born.

Because of its experience with blast injuries, MCOP has elected to specialize in the most complicated cases, which can run up to $100,000 per person. MCOP has pledged to care for a certain number of Ukrainian amputees pro bono, but after that it has to raise money to keep going.

Besides working with BBF, MCOP works with organizations such as the Future for Ukraine Foundation and the Revived Soldiers Ukraine Foundation to bring the soldiers to the United States and pay for housing, food, and incidentals.

Ultimately, MCOP and BBF would like to operate ORP in a center in Ukraine itself. But until then ORP is seeking “bridge funding” to continue to care for Ukrainian soldiers here in the United States. MCOP’s vision is to have the center in Ukraine not only care for amputees, but also to train Ukrainian prosthetists and technicians in the most advanced techniques and to ensure that they have the most advanced materials to work with.

[Oleksandr Chaika and wife Anna arrive in Washington from Ukraine.]

[MCOP staff and friends. Mike Corcoran is the tallest man in this photo and Bill Endicott is to his right.]

[Oleksandr Chaika, dancer and choreographer before the war, soars with a new leg.]

Photos are courtesy of Abbie Bingham Endicott